'The Amazing Race 10' eliminates David and Mary Conley

Unable to reach the leg's Pit Stop fast enough to overcome the thirty minute "marked for elimination" penalty that their last place finish in The Amazing Race 10's previous non-elimination leg had burdened them with, David and Mary Conley became the sixth team to be eliminated from the latest edition of the CBS reality show.


Last night's broadcast of The Amazing Race 10's eighth episode began with the six remaining teams departing Chateau Bel Ombre, a colonial mansion that served as the Pit Stop for the Race's leg in Mauritius. As they left the Pit Stop, the teams received clues instructing them to fly to Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar, another African island nation located about 560 miles west of Mauritius. Once there they would have to find Lake Anosy's "black angel," a well-known large angel statue that despite its name, had recently been painted white.

Although a full hour separated the first three teams to leave the Pit Stop (beauty queens Dustin Konzelman and Kandice Pelletier, former drug addicts and models Tyler Denk and James Branaman, and dating couple Rob Diaz and Kimberly Chabollao, who all left within nine minutes of each other) from the last three teams to leave the Pit Stop (brothers Erwin and Godwin Cho, single moms Lyn Turk and Karlyn Harris, and David and Mary, who all left within four minutes of each other) the fact that they were all leaving the Pit Stop in the middle of the night resulted in all six teams being quickly bunched back together at the airport.

Despite some drama caused by Dustin and Kandice's decision to take one of the other teams' cars and leave their own accident-damaged vehicle behind -- a decision that didn't seem to sit well with the rest of the racing teams -- all of the teams ended up booking tickets on the same Air Mauritius 11AM direct flight to Antananarivo.

Once the teams arrived in Antananarivo, Dave and Mary, Lyn and Karlyn, and Erwin and Godwin all lost valuable time when their taxi drivers all appeared to get lost and drive past the lake. After finding the "black angel" landmark, the teams were greeted by a cluebox that introduced another of this season's new Race twists -- an "Intersection" that required the teams to pair up and join forces with another team. Once paired with the other team of their choosing, the teams would have to perform all tasks and make all decisions together until further notice.


Given they had already decided to ally together as they left the Race's Mauritian Pit Stop and were the first two teams to reach the Intersection cluebox, Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly quickly agreed to "intersect." Since none of the other teams had reached the cluebox yet, that meant that Dustin and Kandice -- who arrived at the cluebox only seconds after Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly -- would have to wait at the Intersection before being allowed to continue in the race.

After "intersecting" and retrieving their new clue, the teams discovered that in addition to the leg's Detour task, the clue also held the details of the Race's second (and final) Fast Forward opportunity. Since they had been the first two teams to arrive at the Intersection, Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly decided to go for the Fast Forward. The task required the teams to drive two miles an open market and "indulge in a local gastronomic delight." Once there, the foursome discovered that the task wasn't so "delightful" -- each member of each team would have to eat a a plate of cooked cow lips, with neither team able to leave until all four racers had completely finished their serving.

Meanwhile, back at the Intersection location, Dustin and Kandice -- having already decided that they if they were going to be forced to work with one of the "Back Pack" teams, they'd prefer it be the Cho brothers -- stood quietly as Dave and Mary and Lyn and Karlyn arrived. Once Erwin and Godwin arrived a few minutes later, they grudgingly agreed to join with the beauty queens.

Since the rest of the teams knew that Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly had already left to do the Fast Forward, they focused on their Detour options, "Long Sleep" and "Short Letter." "Long Sleep" required the teams to travel two miles to an open market. Once there, they would have to wrap eight foam mattresses in mattress covers and then deliver them -- on foot -- to a "customer" located about a mile away. Once the mattresses were delivered, the customer would give the teams their next clue. "Short Letter" required the teams to travel three miles to a paper making station. Once there, they would have to use local methods to produce and decorate 28 sheets of handcrafted paper. Once an artisan had signed off on the quality of their 28 sheets, she would give them their next clue.

Unsurprisingly, both "joined" teams selected "Long Sleep." While it was physically demanding, both foursomes managed to compete the mattress task without much issue. After completing the mattress deliver, the teams received a clue informing them that -- much to their relief -- they were no longer joined. Now separated, each team would have to take a taxi four miles to TohotohoBato Ambondrona Analakely, an area at the base of one of the city's broad flights of steps. Once there, the teams would have to search the area for their next cluebox.


Meanwhile, back at the Fast Forward, Tyler, James, Rob, and Kimberly -- still struggling and vomiting their way through their meals and having already previously decided that quitting and switching to the Detour while mean that one of their two teams would likely end up going home -- attempted to take solace in the (incorrect) fact that the rest of the teams were having to navigate their unwieldy foursomes through "both a Detour and a Roadblock."

Although they left the Detour at the same time, the Cho brothers fell behind Dustin and Kandice when their taxi ran out of gas and had to be pushed to the nearest service station. After finding their cluebox, the teams were greeted with their Roadblock, a task that required one team member to go directly to the Cathedral Andohalo, the site of the Race's next Pit Stop, while the other member searched for "the tool most commonly used by the government of Madagascar, the rubber stamp." Working alone, the team member would have to search among dozens of area stamp vendors and attempt to find stamp imprints that matched four airplane, boat, car, and train symbols that had already been stamped on their clue. After getting the vendors to stamp new copies of all four stamp imprints on their clue, the remaining team member could board a taxi and make their own two mile drive to the Pit Stop location.

Back at the Fast Forward location, Tyler -- still struggling, along with Kimberly, to finish his serving of cow lips -- began to brag about how the Fast Forward was going to give them a "good lead" on the rest of the teams and "no team is going to finish a Detour and a Roadblock ahead of us." However unfortunately for Tyler and the rest of his "intersected" teammates, Dustin (and nearly Godwin as well) did manage to finish the Roadblock before Tyler and Kimberly managed to clear their plates.

Despite boarding a taxi that required a refueling stop in order to make the two mile drive to the Pit Stop, Dustin did manage to reach the Pit Stop ahead of Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly. As their reward for being the first team to check-in at the Pit Stop, Dustin and Kandice won a free trip to Hawaii. Tyler and James arrived next, followed by Rob and Kimberly and Erwin and Godwin.

Back at the Roadblock, although she had every reason to believe that she and Lyn were competing for the leg's final check-in spot and had actually been the first one to arrive at the Roadblock location, Mary went as far as to tell Lyn where she had found her first stamp. "I'm not going to change who I am as a person... I've made friends well worth more than a million dollars in this race, I'm not going to become a devil just for the money, it's not worth it," she later explained in a post-elimination interview.


In the end, although David and Mary were the fifth team to arrive at the Pit Stop, the fact that they had not been the first team to arrive meant that, due to their "marked for elimination" last place finish in the previous episode's non-elimination leg, they would not be able to formally check-in for another 30 minutes. After Lyn arrived ten minutes later, Race host Phil Keoghan broke the bad news to David and Mary. "David and Mary, unfortunately because you were marked for elimination, all the teams have checked in and you had twenty minutes remaining on your penalty -- I'm sorry to tell you you've both been eliminated from the Race."